5 ms·
iPhone 7 lets your neighbors know if you are home or out
- anishathalye 10y agoThis is known behavior: according to the iOS 10 Security white paper [1], "iOS uses randomized Media Access Control (MAC) address when conducting Wi-Fi scans while it isn't associated with a Wi-Fi network... Note that Wi-Fi scans which happen while trying to connect to a preferred Wi-Fi Network aren't randomized". I haven't put much thought into it, but I wonder why they don't randomize all probe requests... [1]: https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf
- agf 10y agoI would assume because MAC-based whitelisting is a commonly used WiFi access control mechanism?
- eridius 10y agoAlso possibly because, if it is associated with a wifi network, then it's already sending packets with its MAC address, so there's not much point in randomizing some of the packets.
- developer2 10y agoIn addition to those who whitelist based on MAC address, some networks also assign "static IPs" via DHCP based on the MAC address.
- KayEss 10y agoOf course the neighbours could always find this out anyway by watching the traffic on your channel as there is never any MAC randomisation involved in talking to a known access point.
- mrexroad 10y agoOf course the neighbors could always find this out anyway by watching the driveway.
- th0mat 10y agoNot true. Microsoft figured out how to do that. Google mac randomization Windows 10.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- KayEss 10y agoThey might choose a different MAC for each network, but surely for a given network they use the same one? Many people use MACs for securing access points and a continuously changing MAC would break that. Your neighbour would be using some sort of correlation to work out the MAC anyway, so all they'll need is that it doesn't change over time for your access point.
- astrange 10y agoWhat would MAC randomization do? Let them think someone's broken into your house?
- randyrand 10y agoso does the presence of my automobile.
- andreyf 10y agoYour neighbor's wifi scale can't see your car, but it can "see" your wifi packets.
- c22 10y ago> Your neighbor's wifi scale can't see your car[...] Don't be so sure: http://people.csail.mit.edu/fadel/wivi/ http://people.csail.mit.edu/fadel/wivi/
- andreyf 10y agoYeah, I would only be a little surprised if it turns out to be feasible to reconstruct 3D shapes to freakish accuracy via wifi signals. Perhaps not anytime soon, though.
- eridius 10y agoClickbait title. There was a story recently that said that all of the devices had flaws with MAC address randomization. There's literally nothing special about the iPhone here.
- andreyf 10y agoHe explains his reasoning at the end.
- eridius 10y agoThat just looks like a bullshit justification for having a clickbait title. It's not like this title will make Apple pay any more attention to the issue. All it does is try to elicit pageviews from other people, while simultaneously misleading them (because the title implies it's a problem unique to iPhone 7, and not everybody is going to read the whole article).
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- elastic_church 10y agothis is hilarious, I'm going to do this